Thought for Today
Isaiah 40:31 but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing
2 Corinthians 4:16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
Ephesians 4:22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
When I worked for engineering companies some years ago, the IT departments always encouraged us as part of our close of day routine to turn off our computer monitors and leave the CPU turned on. In those days and in that environment, most of our work was done on shared systems. Each project would have a shared drive and all project documents were done on the shared drive. IT would do a system back up each evening and the back up files were stored offsite in a safe environment. The reasoning was that in case of some catastrophic failure of loss of data, the only lost information would be from a single day.
At home, to this day, I tend to leave my computer turned on continuously, putting it into ‘sleep’ mode when I retire for the evening. Now, however, I find that this creates problems. Those IT departments were also doing system upgrades during the evenings, upgrading the hardware and the software while everyone else was offline. Now, unless I regularly shut off my entire computer, I do not get the latest operating system upgrades or the latest software upgrades. So, I am training myself to fully shut down my computer at least once each week, usually on Sunday evening.
Sometimes my computer alerts me to the need to shut down for some upgrade. My iPad and smartphone regularly alert me to upgrades to their operating systems. All those devices require renewals and upgrades often. And, each upgrade necessitates that my computer or device be rebooted.
Not surprisingly, a word search of the Bible failed to find the word ‘reboot’ anywhere in scripture. But, we do find frequent references to rest, renewal and restoring. And the apostle Paul even talks about new operating systems, “clothe yourselves with the new self.”
All Christians, regardless of denomination or congregation, have encountered Jesus. Whether or not you have had a Road-to-Damascus epiphany like Paul, or you have had the more common gradual epiphany represented in the lives of the 12, you have ‘installed a new operating system.’
Those new or upgraded systems I regularly install often come with descriptions of the upgrades and changes. Phrases like “fixes system bug” or “improves operating speed” are common. The issue of whether Paul’s “new self” will improve our operating speed is up for debate. The question of fixing “system bugs”, however, is unquestionable.
A new self, “created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” cannot help but be an improvement to our lives. That is not to imply that prior to our personal encounter with Jesus we were necessarily bad or evil. It is certainly not to imply that those yet to have a personal encounter with Jesus are bad or evil. Rather, it acknowledges the reality that no one can personally encounter the Son of God and remain unchanged for the better. It is the reality of becoming fully aware of the truth in Paul’s other words to the Ephesians, “2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—“ Faith in the Jesus we have personally encountered. The rebooting of our very selves; the renewal of our souls, allowing us to “mount up with wings like eagles,” soaring to new realizations of God’s love.
Stay safe, upgrade your systems, trust God,
Pastor Ray